NMHA Ch. 81 - Reminiscence
A/N - Well, that was a lot longer than I expected it to be. I don't really have any excuse - I just haven't really had the time nor inclination to write. Which sucks, because I like writing, and yet here I am.
...Nearly six months later.
Jesus Christ.
But it had to be done. Once again, I feel as though I could do better, but 'good enough' will have to do.
Anyway. On we go.
Click.
"-Aria Stevens on the ground, here in France-"
Click.
"-Widespread destruction as the rioters continue to-"
Click.
"-Unidentified, continuous explosions in Northern Canada have military personnel in North America greatly concerned, as this may represent-"
Click.
"-rchbishop Strada is asking everyone of the faith to hold firm to their beliefs and lend a hand to those that need it-"
Click.
"-forces from Lebanon have begun an incursion into Israeli territory as religious tensions boil over in the Middle-East, likely a result of the mass panic that has taken-"
Click.
Issei turned off the TV, dropping his head into his hands as the weight of events back in the Overworld sunk in.
Simply put, it was chaos. It didn't sound like his home was in danger - yet - but obviously whatever washed over them, knocked Koneko out for a few moments, and drove Rias into a coma, wasn't just a local event.
'Northern Canada.' He wondered if that's where the Dawn Legion had set up base. It made sense: the tundra was far from most civilization, and a perfect place to quietly gather forces, especially if they had support from the local tribes.
His head turned as Asia entered the room. She let out a quiet exhale as she sat down on the couch and leaned into Issei. Dutifully, he looped an arm around to hug her close.
"How is she?"
"Stable, but still not waking up."
"Probably the best we can hope for, for now." Issei frowned. He had a few ideas about what might be keeping Rias from waking back up, but he didn't want to try Boosting her recovery process and accidentally hurt her further by rushing matters.
Especially if it involved Trihexa.
"And Phenex?"
"After I finished doing what I could, Pierre-san suggested I come back to the guest rooms and wait with you until we can meet him face-to-face."
"Probably for the best. I take it that Koneko's staying with her?"
"Channeling Senjutsu," Asia confirmed with a nod. "It seems to soothe Rias, even now."
Not surprising. Koneko's loyalty once earned has always been ironclad. "Were you able to meet with Riser?"
"No, but I did meet with Ravel. She wanted me to see what I can do for Riser. He should be stopping by in a few minutes."
Images flashed through Issei's mind. Another name, another time, another life. Another romance. He lifted a hand to his face, something that Asia caught onto immediately.
"Another one?" She puffed out her cheeks, and Issei tightened his one-armed hug.
"Maybe," he admitted with a wry smile. "But that was then - this is now. I doubt Phenex would be very happy with his biological sister messing around with me, even if I did catch her interest."
Most Devils were pretty xenophobic, in that regard. He wondered if that was an acquired habit from their Demon parents. Probably.
His expression fell as his thoughts returned to what he'd seen on the television.
"It's pretty bad up top right now."
Asia looked up at him, understanding in her gaze. "Kuoh?"
"Fine. For now. I haven't heard anything about it, at least." He had also been pretty busy helping keep Rias stable as they rushed to the Phenex manor, so he had just been catching up with the news. "I think that whatever is happening with Trihexa, it's starting to come to a head."
"Do you think you can stop it?"
"I-" Issei cut himself off. He was a lot stronger, especially in such a short period of time. Maybe if he could square off against Phenex he could get a better idea of his actual capabilities.
Then again, this was Trihexa, the thing that had killed him at the height of his power in his past lives, over and over again.
"No." He shook his head. "But I might be able to at least help. I'd need to actually face someone in the top echelons of power to get an idea if I could. Lunarunn's definitely up there now, so I'd need to test myself against someone insanely strong."
"Maybe Phenex could help you gauge yourself, once he gets back."
They really did have the same thought process. "Yeah, I was thinking that too. Thing is, I'm not sure how helpful he'll be toward a human."
"It's worth a shot."
The brunet nodded and rose to his feet. "Yeah, you're right. I can't wait around. There's no telling when Phenex will meet with us - so I have to go to him."
"Issei..." Asia pouted, but her expression firmed up as she stood. "I think I understand. I'll wait here for the good news. Be careful, okay?"
He met her expectant gaze with an incline of his head and a faint grin. "I'll do my best."
"Do you know where the Lord's Study is?"
"...I was going to figure that out along the way?"
"Don't cause too much damage."
"Who d'you think I am?"
"Ise-kun is Ise-kun."
The brunet slumped. "Ouch. Point taken. Alright, but only because you asked nicely."
"Okay! Good luck Ise-kun!" The beaming smile only served to drive in the knife, Issei's self-deprecating slump sagging further before he straightened back up.
"Thanks." Hopefully, he wouldn't need it.
As Phenex walked into the study, he immediately noticed something off. Aside from this body's Rooks laid out on the ground, that is.
The presence of a human.
He remembered this one, back in the forest with his Devil kin. This human smelled of dragon back then. That scent was even stronger now. Curious.
'For a spawn of Adam, anyway.'
"You are bold to enter my study without prior permission, human."
The human pushed off the side of the wall where he'd been leaning, having elected to not take a seat prior to Phenex's entry. "Issei. That's my name. I get the feeling you aren't fond of my kind, but I refuse to be called by what I am instead of who I am."
Phenex's eyes narrowed, the surroundings of the room heating up in response to the barb. Then again, this whelp wasn't entirely human, was he? No, that arm was distinctly draconic and there was the layer of dragon in the human's presence beyond even that.
"A Sacred Gear user. A Longinus, judging by your confidence."
The brunet blinked. "So Longinuses existed even back before you were Rended?"
"It was a process that my Father had just started," he waved off the question, walking up to the human with hawkish eyes. "And I have read up since then. But you're mistaken if you believe that earns you any respect from me. That power does not belong to you."
"It doesn't," he agreed. "It's Ddraig's. But it is a power I have nonetheless, and so I have the right to wield it how I wish."
"And what is that wish, exactly?"
The human lifted his chin. "To protect that which I consider precious."
How very dragonlike of him.
"Curious then, how that seems to impact those around you. Both times we have met, it is after someone I consider under my own protection is injured. One time is a coincidence, but twice?" Phenex's nose crinkled. "You are a fool to break into my sanctum, look me in the eye, and demand to be treated with what you see as 'respect'. I am already giving you enough leeway by not immolating you where you stand."
The Sacred Gear wielder scowled. "Is that because I've insulted you? Or is that because I'm a human?"
"I fail to see the difference." The blond Demon remarked. "Your very presence is distasteful. Even the least of Devilkind still bear lineage to the divine. Humans, though? You were made to be lesser. Yet you have the gall to desire equal treatment?"
It took several seconds for the human to respond, as though processing his words.
Then he shrugged. "Then it's a good thing I decided to take matters into my own hands. It sounds like you'd have kept us waiting."
"How very perceptive of you. And wait you shall. Now get out of my office."
"Nah. I think I've got your type pegged. Since you're not gonna listen otherwise, I'm just gonna beat the crap out of you until you acknowledge me."
"Ex-?!" Phenex wasn't even able to finish his exclamation before a fist slammed into his stomach, a wave of force blasting outward from the impact - he sought to turn to fire, but his power was unusually slow to respond to his command.
Or was the expulsion of force just so rapid that even he could not react in time?
The doors behind him scattered like so much dust as the Demon careened through them, wooden splinters joined by glass moments after punching straight through the window.
He recovered in midair, wings of white flame spreading wide as Issei reappeared in the broken windowsill, one foot inside and the other raised as though to leap through and join the Demon in the sky above the Phenex estate.
Phenex snarled, patience thoroughly tested and lost. "Enough of your mockery, brat! It's time you got what you deserved back in the forest!"
"Try me, you fried chicken!" The brunet fired back, the armor of the Boosted Gear forming around his draconic limb, then spreading across his back to form thrusters, leaping into the sky after the Demon.
At first Issei was sure he'd made a major mistake, walking into Phenex's office after sending the Demon's Rooks packing. He still remembered Phenex's fire, and the slash that had cut Riser in two. The two weren't from the same fighter (probably), but it was a stark reminder of how much stronger they were than him at the time.
Then the brunet noticed a couple things as the fires closed in around him, forcing him to weave through the air as tendrils chased after in hot pursuit, screeching to a stop in front of a downward blast of heated wind so powerful that he had to squint from the dust that kicked up, well over a dozen stories in the air.
First off, Phenex was tired. Not exhausted, but he'd clearly been in another fight of some sort, so he was weaker than he would otherwise have been. His fires weren't as instantaneous, the intensity not quite so overwhelming.
Issei, thrust his hands out to each side, the Boosted force from each dispersing the fires and opening a path to Phenex proper, getting back in to deliver another palm strike of Boosted impact.
Secondly, Issei was remembering things. Tricks with the Boosted Gear. Techniques learned in previous lifetimes to deal with enemies otherwise immune to his typical style of combat.
While Phenexes were typically untouchable physically, they still needed energy to reform after sufficiently powerful attacks, and the more they had to reform the more it took out of them. Phenex was a Demon, but he was still a Phenex, and likely subject to that same limitation.
He could see that the Demon was incensed. Yet, after throwing out a feint, Phenex bought it and started dissolving into flame to avoid the attack, and received a thunderous clap to both sides of his head for his troubles.
Which led to Issei's third realization.
"You don't just have something on your mind- You know what's going on," he said aloud, sliding back as the air around Phenex crackled with latent heat, the prelude to an eruption of flame. "Spill the beans!"
"Silence!" the demon roared, garlands of flame spilling off of him in a fiery explosion and setting the sky ablaze with flaming tempests and incendiary whirlwinds. "This has nothing to do with you!"
"That Trihexa thing has killed me off God knows how many times, and shit is going off the deep end yet again!" Issei shouted back, weaving back in, knowing that the only way to keep Phenex on the back foot was to keep pushing. A Boosted impact later had Phenex slamming into the ground and dissolving into yet more fire. "Only this time, it's completely spiraling out of control! Demons possessing people, Lunarunn, the Dawn Legion, I don't remember any of this in any of my past lives! This has nothing to do with me? Don't give me that garbage! I've been involved in this whole mess with Trihexa ever since I was born!"
Where were these words coming from? He didn't quite know, but they didn't stop flowing.
This wasn't his first life. Which would explain how he could remember all the times he had died. But anything before that only came in flashes.
But his own words rang true in his ears.
"I don't know everything that's going on, but I do know that whatever is going down, Trihexa is at the core of it," Issei breathed out, turning around and Boosting the amount of air resistance met by Phenex's retaliatory flames, causing them to pour around him, but leaving Issei himself untouched. His armor staved off the worst of the residual intensity, even if his breathing became uncomfortable "I need to know what's happening. I need to. And you have the knowledge I need. If I need to beat it out of you, I will."
"Such arrogance," the Demon hissed.
"Maybe it is. But I have to try anyway. Balance Breaker - Scale Mail." As the armor snapped up and enveloped Issei's body, he wasted no time in closing the gap again, bursting through the flames and punching through Phenex, then spinning around to Boost the humidity from above.
The sky darkened as water came crashing down like a torrent, the exponentially-multiplied water density turning an otherwise ordinary amount of humidity into a deluge, forcing Phenex on the defensive again as he speared through the assault with a blast of wind. Yet even then, Issei rushed forward, pressuring him with a barrage of force-Boosted fists, the water from on high forcing the Demon's attention to yet another place lest it weaken the fires currently burning around them.
It became a deadly dance of fire, wind, and water, Issei using the humidity as a cudgel to batter away at Phenex's area of control, dousing fires as soon as they sprung up to keep him from turning the battlefield against him, steam quickly filling the air only to be dispersed by the shockwaves of the two fighters' impacts.
Boost. Boost. Boost. Boost. The words kept echoing in Issei's head, an unending mantra as he continued to rush in, strike, weave out, and avoid the counter-assault. Something was eating away at the Demon. Even tired from a previous battle, there was no way Issei should be having this easy a time, he knew deep down.
Finally, he managed to score a telling blow - just as Phenex was reforming from flames the brunet dove in and drove his hands into the Demon's reforming core, swinging both arms out with another BOOST!
This time, Phenex screamed as the vacuum left where his core was supposed to be ripped and tore, the force caused by Issei's Boost preventing the Demon from reforming, splitting him apart as though scattered to the winds.
This time, Issei received a telling blow in turn, the air driven from his lungs as the Demon erupted into what felt like a supernova, that second sun sending him careening away and slamming into the ground, bouncing away multiple times from the impacts.
Even suspended in the air mid-bounce, Issei had to Boost away to prevent the flames from closing in on him once again, brighter and more furious than ever as Phenex reappeared, expression murderous as he summoned a faintly whining blade of white-hot flame - no, plasma?!
Issei dove, the heat of the weapon singing his hair before noting with no small alarm that more blades were appearing on the air, suspended in the sky in such a way that even if he put one out, the others could merely close ranks - a facsimile of the angelic host that Phenex once led.
Much like that host, they fell alongside the Demon's charge, form blurring between person and pyre as the thousand blades closed the distance between themselves and Issei's form.
Despite himself, Issei's blood thrummed, a wide grin spreading across his helmeted face as he lifted his arms to both sides, then swung them forward, the air between each ionized particle of those falling blades doubling multifold and dispersing, their energy hurled across the atmosphere of the Underworld.
Boosted Gear really was an insane Sacred Gear, with even a little thought put into it. There was little that Issei couldn't double, he'd discovered among his many lives. Even now, images of things he hadn't considered before filled the space between the internal Boosts.
Speed? Power? Size? Weight? General force? All things that he could, and has, boosted in most cases.
(Yes, the 'things' he'd Boosted in that manner had, more than once, been glorious oppai.)
Then there was what Lunarunn brought up - being able to Boost more than just physical abilities. That anything measurable could be doubled exponentially.
So if speed and power were measurable factors that he could enhance, then what did that mean for, say, distance? Or tolerances? He knew he could do 'sensitivity', of which 'tolerance' was the inverse of.
The Boosted Gear was a Longinus. There was much, much more to its capabilities than merely doubling a person's 'power'. That had to be the case, for a power capable of slaying gods.
Little wonder that Ddraig was so feared in his heyday. In the hands of someone looking to defeat an opponent, rather than fight them, Issei could think of multiple different ways to defeat an opponent with just a touch.
...Though if he wasn't careful he might just kill them outright.
'I'm much better at killing than I am at fighting,' the voice of a certain brunette rang in his mind.
He was starting to understand why.
But this was a Demon. And not just any Demon, but the Fried Chicken Demon. If anyone could withstand punishment, it was this guy.
As the image of his tearing Phenex's reforming body apart appeared in his mind, Issei forced that image into two copies. Then four. Eight. Sixteen, thirty-two, sixty-four. And so on.
'Take advantage of Phenex's regeneration', something whispered to Issei, though he could not tell if it was Ddraig or his own instinct. 'Multiply the time and energy it takes for him to reform. Multiply it to the point where once he scatters again, it'll drain him completely to come back together. Or if not once, then the next few times.'
He rushed to meet Phenex, passing beneath the Demon's lunge. His hand tapped the furious being's arm, and a single word escaped his lips.
"Transfer."
His trap set, Issei struck.
Ruval closed his eyes, crossing his arms as he considered his options.
"Without you, I don't exist."
What did that mean? There were so many ways to interpret that sort of comment - literally, emotionally, metaphorically.
But the fact still stood- the pretender Luna sat before him on the grassy fields, completely at his mercy, not even trying to escape.
So much more powerless than the one he knew.
That wasn't right. The one he knew was a woman who would drag herself through the mud if it meant being able to stand up for herself and those beneath her.
Yet he could also see how, had he not pushed her to rest all those years ago - she could have fallen apart a different way. Accepted conformity.
Become what he saw before him now.
But she hadn't. She broke, but she pulled herself back together.
It was part of how she'd inspired him to wake up out of his ennui.
And this imposter wanted him to return to it?
The thought sent a flood of white-hot fury through his veins, and in the Devil's mind the image of him striking the fake Lunarunn down caused his hand to twitch.
Something stopped him, though.
"Then what are you?" he demanded. "If you don't exist without me, then what are you?"
The fake Luna looked up at him again, blinking in surprise before looking back down, legs rising so her knees touched her chest.
"A... lost soul."
"Elaborate."
"Do you know about the resets?"
Ruval frowned. "Elaborate."
"Hm." She looked away again, before elaborating further. "This... isn't the first time you've been alive. Or the world. How do I describe it?" She bit the side of her lower lip. "It's like a wheel of sorts."
"Like the Hindu pantheon's 'Karma'?"
The brunette shook her head. "N-not quite. It's actually got to do with Heaven's System. When the world goes off script- well, really, more when it's about to be destroyed, Heaven's System is able to restore the world to a previous state, before everything went wrong. Everyone who is a part of the world is reset, for lack of a better term. Everyone who is under Heaven's System."
"And what does this have to do with-" A memory from years ago resurfaced, stopping Ruval short.
The imitator - no, previous iteration? - looked away, her good arm tightening around her legs. "I- I take it that you know the truth about Lunarunn?"
"That she wasn't of this world." Yes, he knew. She'd admitted that she was a reincarnation. But if she was 'outside' of the world, then did that mean-?
"You're a different Lunarunn. From a different cycle?"
She paused, then nodded, smiling sadly. "You always were quick on the uptake."
But if that was the case, then what did that mean about all this? Why was the world around them fake? Why was it so hard to look at her and not lose himself?
"How are you even here?"
"I... I made a deal."
"A deal?" he echoed, brow drawing together. "With whom, exactly?"
The false (previous?) Lunarunn looked down, staring at the ground before finally responding.
"Dantalion and Phenex. Not just the bloodlines, the Demons."
How? Why? Those questions and more raced through Ruval's head, but he chose a different question instead.
"And what does it have to do with me?"
"Everything. I'll - I'll explain everything. I just need a minute to think about how to explain it."
Fine. He could allow her a moment to collect her thoughts.
As she did, he noticed the world around them start to shift, a new scene overlaid atop the grassy plain they once stood.
"It starts with a girl. Let's call her Fennel."
Another Luna appeared, this one younger; back in her early adulthood.
"Your name?"
"From a time when I was human," the previous iteration of the brunette affirmed. "But when I realized that I was someone else, that the world I was in was different, I took up her name. Her habits. They weren't so different from mine."
"Lunarunn Bael."
"Mhm. So Fennel learned that she was no longer human. That she had magic. That she was effectively immortal. Free to do whatever she wanted." The smile on her face widened conspiratorially. "Within reason, of course. So she experimented. She learned about her odd abilities, even for Devils."
"Worldweave."
She nodded. "I suppose that's a constant. But, yes. Then she met Ruval."
"Your Ruval."
"Ruval is Ruval." Indeed, the scene shifted, and they were in a ballroom - a familiar one, Ruval recognized. And over there, amidst the faceless figures, were him and her, in a slow dance. "The same blond hair, the same blue eyes, the same easy smile."
Her eyes met his, but he got the feeling she was looking at someone else. "A gentleman, through and through. They met. You were curious about what a middle-class Bael would do at a gala for the upper echelons of society. You talked a lot about your family. About how silly your youngest brother was. He was four at the time."
Four years after he met Luna. If he hadn't made any steps toward courting someone by that time, then there would probably be a marriage contract between House Phenex and House Gremory.
"Things were different. You weren't taken under the wing of the Satans."
"I met them shortly after I first awoke. But Fennel didn't impress them all that much. That was the first, and only time she met Lords Beelzebub and Lucifer." She tilted her head. "How are they, by the way?"
"Ajuka Beelzebub is dead. Killed by Lunarunn in combat. The less said about Sirzechs, the better."
"Oh." 'Fennel' covered her mouth with a hand. "That's... I'm not quite sure how to respond to that."
Ruval shook his head, gesturing for her to continue.
She coughed politely into her hand, then obliged the wordless request. "We - er, they - Fennel and Ruval, I mean. They hit it off. She showed him Worldweave. He showed her why he was one of the most popular Devils in the Ratings Games."
They were in the bedroom again, the sounds of lovemaking in the air, and Ruval cleared his throat. The brunette giggled, and the scene shifted.
"Everything you wanted, she gave. Everything she wanted, you had. They fit. Eventually, they even tied the knot. It was everything a girl could hope for!"
Her beaming expression fell, and she looked away again. "...Then the contract between the Gremory and Phenex houses was annulled. Riser lost his Rating Game against Rias Gremory. Once more, Fennel and Ruval were the only successful marriage among the Phenexes."
Understanding struck. "Were you infertile?"
"No... it was worse. Apparently experimenting with magic has side effects. Who knew?" She laughed, but Ruval could tell immediately that it was a hollow thing. "Every time Fennel was with child, it ended in a miscarriage. Despite all efforts to the contrary."
A pit opened in Ruval's stomach. "And Devils don't have many kids to begin with."
She nodded slowly. "Mh. You realized what was going on, and Fennel and Ruval went on a hunt for something, anything, that might help her condition. Experimental treatments, IVF, rituals, nothing worked. Then, eventually, you started to... drift away."
The background changed again, this time with a lavish bedroom - with a bed containing only a single occupant. The door behind him closed, and Ruval knew with a chilling certainty that he had been the one to close that door.
"The whispers started a while before then, but... at that point, they got worse. 'Lunarunn' is a cursed Devil. She can't produce an heir. She won't produce an heir." She shivered, tightening her one-armed grasp of her leg. "I- She was isolated. My family was never particularly close. I- she- didn't put much effort into maintaining that relationship. She had nobody to talk to, and even you- you sought your heir in another bed. Pressured to, over time, but you eventually gave in. Gave up."
Ruval watched as the brunette shifted in place, distinctly uncomfortable. "I tried everything. She tried everything, but it was never enough. She gave you everything, and you walked away. I couldn't take it. I- She had to do something. Anything."
The scene changed once again, this time to a dark room, filled with bubbling and hissing, the air charged with wrongness.
It was disturbingly familiar.
"She tapped into the Phenex family's wealth to gather tomes of... questionable things. She made sure not to spend too much at once - the presumptive Lady Phenex couldn't risk the reputation of her husband or the family as a whole, especially not after the ascendancy of the Gremory Family on the back of the Red Dragon Emperor. Though even 'presumptive' was starting to look questionable, since the Red Dragon Emperor had gained Ravel's affections."
"And that's how you came into contact with Dantalion and Phenex?"
"Not so much 'contact' as 'draw on their powers'. I tried Gremory and Sitri first since they have... experience, dealing with men." The previous Lunarunn looked away. "The essence for them wasn't responsive. Gremory's essence failed because my own relationship to the Gremory family was strained. I don't like the family as a whole after what happened, and I think what was left of Gremory knew it. Sitri's lack of usefulness was because I was trying to save a marriage, not ruin one. I nearly died trying to press the matter with what remained of their consciousnesses."
There was another shift, and now they were in an infirmary. 'Fennel' was bandaged up, listening to - but not looking at - Ruval's Queen as he spoke something to her. It didn't seem like a telling-off, but the bedbound woman did not seem pleased in the slightest.
Ruval glanced back at the current-time 'Fennel'. "Never mind the fact that both demons were renowned for twisting the hearts of men?"
She looked away, voice small. "I never said I was good, Ruval. Just that I was trying to save something that fell apart despite all my attempts to salvage it. We were happy, once. I just... I just wanted to return to that happiness. That's all."
"And that's when you were able to procure Dantalion's and Phenex's power."
"My- er, Fennel-" She cut herself off with a growl. "Rgh, forget it. My plight resonated with what they once were. Dantalion's domain proved to be the means, and Phenex?" She shifted, squirming under Ruval's scrutiny. "Well. He was the medium."
His eyes widened. "The lights."
They were all flame-based. Oil lamps. Candles. Even the sun. If Phenex was the medium, then anything fire-based could-
And he, as Phenex's blood, was a being of fire.
The thought, paradoxically, turned Ruval's insides to ice.
"What did you do?" he whispered.
The scene returned to the field of green, but Ruval could see the house - their - her - our home - in the distance, the same one he'd left to gather his thoughts. In the distance, he could see the flickering lights.
A sense of longing washed over him simultaneously foreign and familiar. He looked away.
"...I ran away with you," Fennel said quietly. "Ran away from it all. Buried both our pasts, and focused only on the present. The here and now. What we had with each other. What we have." She met his eye. "Who cares what the others think? We could have each other. I wished I could spend an eternity with you, and forget the rest of the world. I got exactly what I wanted."
She smiled weakly. "When the end came upon us - you were none the wiser. You died, happy and at peace. I made sure of it."
It was an explanation, for sure. But it still wasn't a great one. "That doesn't explain why you're still here. Here... wherever we are."
"I- I don't really know why I'm here, but-" She considered her next words. "I do have a theory."
"It's better than nothing."
"Well, I..." The brunette breathed out a sigh, running her hands over her face. "Well. I'm not part of the world I found myself in. So when Heaven's System reset - it undid the ritual I created as well, but since I wasn't part of the world, my mark remained in some form. You may well still hold part of Phenex's essence - and mine. So when my body died, what remained clung to what was left. The alternative... I couldn't. Not to that thing."
The face beyond the veil that Ruval momentarily broke through flashed in his mind's eye.
"Then you've been here? All this time?"
"I've been alone for so long," Fennel admitted, hugging her knees again. "Much, much too long. Time is strange here, but still." Her eyes watered, voice growing thick. "I missed you Ruval. I missed you so much."
Without you, I don't exist.
As if reading his mind, she continued. "I was just another faceless thing in a faceless world. No name, no mind, no self. I didn't exist until you came back to me. And now- now you're trying to leave me again." Her arms tightened around her legs further, murmuring huskily to herself. "Dantalion... is this the price I have to pay?"
He didn't know what to say, but he had to try. "Lu- no, Fennel-"
Fennel didn't seem to hear him, arms going to her head. "I.. I can't. I can't lose you again Ruval, I have to protect my happiness, without it I don't can't won't exist - I'd be better off dead - I have to protect it - protect it from anything. From anyone." Her head snapped up, a horrified realization in her eyes. "From the man I love."
Ruval's eyes widened as realization struck. Her arm was whole again-
Yet before he could act the world around them exploded into a kaleidoscope of colors, and shapes, and cracking crackling fire and lusty fire and he was falling and desperate fire and ravenous fire and he had to escape get away get out, and fire and fire and fire-
He staggered, the flames around him sputtering out as a shockwave of something caused the world - and himself - to fall into convulsions. He fell to the ground, twitching as something inside - around - him emptied out at an alarming rate. A woman with familiar brown hair ran to his side, eyes wide with alarm as the world grew dark.
She said something, voice panicked, but he couldn't make sense of it.
Ruval curled up into a ball, struggling so desperately to keep himself together at whatever happened to him - his body - threatened to rip him apart.
He felt someone's hands fall upon his body, but it felt staticky, as though he'd lost feeling in his skin.
He lost consciousness moments later.
"I'm sorry, Lunarunn. I did everything I could."
The words of the former Grigori leader rang hollow in her ears, but she knew them to be true.
The Norse assault had been a distraction. While she'd been busy fighting Odin, the Devils had come for the bedridden.
Azazel had been able to save about half of the patients.
Georg had not been among them.
She walked over to his body, punched full of holes, and reached down, picking up the game device he'd carried with him.
She silently opened it, staring at the blasted-off corner.
This was more than just a major operational loss. Georg was important to the logistics infrastructure of the Dawn Legion. He and Fay had been futureproofing the Dawn Legion in case of this exact scenario - but that was still not entirely in place. They were going to have some rough months ahead when it came to supplies.
But more than that, she remembered the times they'd shared.
She remembered the last time they'd played games together - right before the Dawn Legion took the stage at the Summit.
They'd been too busy keeping things going to reconvene after that.
He'd been so strong. So driven. So full of life.
Yet he died in a coma. Helpless. Unable to do anything but become collateral damage in Sirzechs's and Azazel's skirmish.
More than just a massive logistical asset and force multiplier, Georg had been a friend.
But just like that... he too was gone.
She closed the device and knelt back down, setting the handheld console back on Georg's chest.
She was pretty sure she was taking it as well as she could, and yet a strange feeling bubbled in her chest. She knew what those feelings were.
Lunarunn quietly, detachedly, marveled at how tempted she was to follow them, despite knowing what happened to her patron for taking that path.
"We lost a good one today." Gil commented softly, battered and badly bruised, leaning on his axe. He stared at the silenced scene, the men and women of the Dawn Legion stripping Arbiter Base of everything they could to rebuild at one of their outposts silenced beyond the brunette's privacy ward.
"Yeah." Luna heard herself speak. A short, one-word response. It wasn't just Georg that was lost.
Serafall had been taken. Returned to the Underworld no doubt, and placed into intensive care. She'd be safe there, but...
"Our medical facilities were better," she said, more to herself than anyone, though still aloud. "Is Sirzechs really so petty that he'd consign one of his few remaining friends to worse medical care just to get at me?"
"He was under pressure from the families," Azazel attempted to explain. "They needed to re-establish that they had some level of control over the situation down below - especially after Heaven's System collapsed."
"He should have told them to shove it."
His voice softened. "He has a family to look after."
Her malefic, clawed hand clasped into a fist, even as her tone mimicked the Fallen Angel's. "So do I."
The black-and-gold-haired Fallen had nothing to say to that.
"Go talk with Kokabiel," she ordered. "He'll give you a basic rundown of what's been going on in the Grigori over the past few months. Maybe you'll be able to do more there."
Azazel stiffened, but his posture slackened as he recognized the pointed comment had not been intentional, and took his leave without another word.
After a few more seconds of silence, Gil spoke up again. "So... what now, boss?"
"Now?" She looked in the distance, wondering if the Canadian or - God forbid - the American military would show up and bury this place in ordinance.
Probably not, but she didn't know for certain. After all the commotion caused by her and Odin's battle, there was undoubtedly going to be some sort of investigation.
"We take what we can, and we press on," Luna heard herself speak once more. "We'll need to prioritize adjusting our logistics chains now that Dimension Lost is no longer available to us. This attack was - is - devastating, but we will survive. But I think our operations will be limited for a while."
"Are you sure? The whole world's gone mad. We need to help stem the chaos however we can."
"One person can only do so much. Even me." the human-turned-Demon gestured to the rubble of the Arbiter Base. "And we lost a lot of people today. As much as I hate to say it. we need to staunch our own bleeding first before we can go help others with theirs."
"That- that makes sense."
Lunarunn glanced back at Gil. He'd proved himself today, holding off Thor and even defeating him with Loki's aid. Still, he was only one person, just like she said about herself.
And he'd done enough.
"Get some rest, medical attention if possible. I can tell you're at least dealing with a broken rib, and you're favoring your right leg. I'll bet the left one's giving you hell right now."
"I can still help," he insisted, though she didn't miss the wince. She must have been spot-on in her assessment of his physical condition.
"I know." Her lips quirked upward ever so slightly. "But I don't want you to kill yourself helping other people back up. We've lost enough people already."
"With all due respect Ma'am, I could say the same to you."
"My wounds are superficial. Devils tend to be hardier creatures than humans, for better or worse."
"You still lost a friend."
Those words pierced her detached serenity, and it was only with great difficulty that she held onto her calm.
"I did," the brunette acknowledged. "But time is not on our side. I'll do what I can to manage." Her gaze swept over the remains of their headquarters. "What Georg fought for still lives, so it falls to me to ensure the dream he fought for - and died for - survives."
"...If you insist, boss." Gil relented. He shifted in place, grimacing faintly. "I- uh, I think I'll go-"
"Get medical attention?" She glanced back at him, a small smile that only barely reached her eyes on her face. "Thank you Gil, that puts me at ease. If you do want to help, you could probably do so there, once your rib and leg are handled."
"Ma'am." He gave a brief salute before turning to hobble off.
As he did, the smile fled from Luna's face, her gaze returning to Georg's body.
"I'm sorry, but I have a few things I need to do before I can give you a proper burial," she murmured to him - to the aetheric whispers that represented his passing - before turning to walk across the toward one of the tents that had been set up after the collapse of Arbiter Base.
As she stepped inside, she quickly took stock of the room. Only two figures were present - Cao Cao, who had offered to stand guard while Lunarunn managed the evacuation, and the instigator. Battered, beaten, and bleeding still from the titanic battle he eventually lost, bound and sealed by a frankly excessive number of runes and enchantments. In a kneeling position in the center of the room, sat the one who started the conflict that had left hundreds, if not thousands, dead.
Fay had been quite distraught after Georg died. She - as well as the gods that chipped in - were taking no chances with the Allfather.
"Odin," she said tonelessly, giving a single nod to Cao Cao. He nodded back, wordlessly, walking around to step outside, likely to provide his own support.
The one-eyed god, whose gaze had remained fixed on the ground, snapped up to meet Luna's eyes with his own.
"Azrael."
She chose to ignore the fact that he referred to her as the Demon, and not who she actually was.
A silence drew out between the two, as though challenging the other to speak first, before the brunette finally broke the air.
"Are you proud of yourself?" She asked, voice forcefully calm. "Are you proud of the actions you took in your alliance with Sirzechs?"
He remained silent. The quietus between the two extended for several seconds, then tens, to finally half a minute.
"I want to know," she insisted, taking a step forward. "Why do you believe I'm the same Demon who eventually became Trihexa? Is it my face? Is it my mission? Why do you believe that slaying me and destroying what I've made is worth spending the lives of your Einherjar? Why let the Devils go after the sick and wounded? I'm trying to make sense of what drove you to these actions, but I just can't."
More silence.
"I lost a friend today, thanks to you," the brunette continued, getting onto one knee. "He was comatose. Unable to wake up, after a run-in with Rizevim Lucifer. He was supposed to be safe. He was supposed to have been wheeled out and away from the battlefield when you attacked."
Her clawed hand snapped out, but instead of gouging lines out of Odin's face like she dearly wished to, it instead pointed back outside. Her voice was tight as she struggled to hold in her anger. "His body is out there right now, blown full of holes. He became collateral damage after the medical bay was specifically targeted by the Devils. Yours is a culture of honor, of glory in battle. That wasn't a battle, Odin - that was a targeted, one-sided slaughter."
Her arm lowered, and she drew back. "I was lucky that Azazel was willing to try and save as many people there as possible. At least now I have eyewitness reports of the depths of cowardice that Sirzechs has sunk to."
Lunarunn's shoulders sank. "He was willing to attack the weakest of us, to face us not in honorable combat but in a scheme that justifies the stigma Devils have been given. So how can you justify working with someone like that and hold to the moral code you demand of your own?"
More silence, which finally set her off.
"Damn it Odin, why did you head an attack that took one of my few remaining friends from me!?" she rose back to her feet in a forward step, shaking furiously as her hand went back to pointing outside. "Forget about me, what did he do wrong, huh!? Georg was in a fucking coma! If he was a follower of Asatru he'd be rotting in Helheim right now, through no fault of his own! If you're going to fight me, fine, that's your fuckup to make, but at least give my people a chance to earn their place in your army afterwards!"
Still nothing. He continued to stare at her impassively, but by this point she'd regained some of her composure.
"That's it?" the brunette asked disbelievingly, lip twitching as she fought down a snarling sob."You're not gonna defend yourself? You're not even gonna try?"
Frustratingly enough, that made the old man speak. "What difference does it make? I made my choice."
'Finally.' Lunarunn bared her teeth. "You could still survive this."
"By recanting my actions?" A short, humorless snort escaped Odin. "Perhaps I should have given Rossweisse's words more weight that assaulting you was an unwise course of action. Yet even so, my decision would not have changed. I have seen what you have done to the supernatural world. I have seen you rip gods from existence itself. Motives aside, your continued presence represents a threat to this world that I must intervene in. Your presence shows Ragnarok is upon us, and it is my duty as Allfather to rally my soldiers to fight in it. Pride has nothing to do with my aiding Sirzechs. Turning Gungnir upon you had to be done. No more, no less."
"No. Ragnarok would come regardless of my actions. As it has before, time and again." Lunarunn stepped back away and crossed her arms. "Are you afraid I'll follow in my predecessor's footsteps, and become an indiscriminate killing machine?"
"Absolute power reveals the true nature of those that wield it," the god replied drily. "And your nature has proven itself mercurial. There is a reason why I was never willing to give my half-brother my throne, and why you have wound up gathering various trickster gods under your banner - said half-brother included. Like begets like."
"Mercurial? You could say the same thing about that piece of shit Z̵͔̯̥͕͊̋̍͗̎͒̓͋̔̀̾͛́̽͝ę̶̞̤̳̟̆͑͑̍̓͊̈́́̈̑͝ù̷̧̨̖̗̩͇̦̟̹͇̆̂̀̎̒̽͑͘͠͝͝͝s̴̻̺̦̋̄̑̎́̽̆̿̈̅͘͜͝. Yet somehow he ended up King of Olympus." Luna felt a faint flush of satisfaction as Odin's face twitched, the sole indicator of the fact that the name of the erased god was physically painful to hear. "But even aside from that: if not me, then whom? Yahweh is dead. Of all beings, isn't the one who can wield His aspect of 'the Omega' the best suited to be the great equalizer?"
"Then you admit you are the selfsame Demon who became the End of All Things." Odin let that declaration sink in for a moment before he continued. "Or you are a being who came into power far beyond her understanding. In either case, I cannot trust you to use that power in this world's best interests. I had to act."
The brunette stepped back, eyes sliding shut as she processed his words. They were... biting. She'd tried giving him every reason to give her the benefit of the doubt, yet still he turned against her. And yet, she couldn't fault his logic either, at least from a strictly rational perspective.
"That's why I have people like Cao Cao and Kokabiel to stand with me," She eventually replied. "Kokabiel tried to kill me twice, and very nearly succeeded both times. I trust that he'd do so again if I truly did step out of line. Cao Cao is biased against the supernatural to begin with, so his skepticism helps keep me grounded.
"And yet if you push the matter, they cannot stop you."
"And that's why I hold myself as high an expectation as I hold everyone else with power. If I can't stand to my own standards, I'll have become the very thing I've set out to fight."
He stared at her neutrally. "Unless you're already compromised."
"Well. Then I wouldn't have as many people following me as I would. I've always tried to be as transparent as possible. I do not hide what I am, nor what I mean to do. I lead, I may even be a King -" She cracked a faint smile at the wordplay, but quickly regained her composure. "-but make no mistake, I am no ruler. Nor do I want to be."
"And yet, here you are, attempting to understand the god you are about to execute."
"I know the weight of life all too well - and just how fragile it can be. If I could imprison you instead, I would." Luna glanced around, as though the reality of the situation were sinking in.. "But our ability to do so has been destroyed for the foreseeable future, especially for an individual of your caliber." Her head pivoted slowly from left to right to left again. "I can't compromise the safety of my men and women again by letting you go. You said it yourself - you can't trust me."
"Nor you, me." It was a statement, not a question.
The Demon could only give a single nod. "Not after what you've done. Fighting me, fighting us, I understand. I won't hold that against you. But aiding and abetting the murder of defenseless people, and the people I've been charged to protect at that? I'm sorry, but I just can't let that go. Not on any level - not as a leader, not as a person."
"I see." Odin's eye closed, and for a moment the Allfather was gone, replaced by an old man coming to terms with his impending mortality. He seemed to have come to some sort of conclusion. "Even if in doing so you earn the enmity of my people, you stand by your beliefs."
"I'll see to it that your body is returned to Valhalla, so you receive a proper burial."
"A kinder fate than many have received at your hand." His gaze reopened, and the presence of the Allfather returned with it, bound and sealed though he was. "I shan't shy from what awaits me."
Luna's jaw set. "You are not a monster, Odin, but I have no other choice."
The old god seemed to... acknowledge that? "I would expect nothing less, given your circumstances."
"Any last words?"
Another moment passed, before his gaze met her directly. "For what it is worth, your people did not deserve the fate they received at Sirzechs's hand."
The brunette stood there for a good few seconds, before she finally nodded back.
"I'm glad we can at least agree on that," the Demon affirmed softly. "Thank you, Odin, and goodbye."
An arm swiped out, a thing violet line springing from a slicing hand. There was an audible snap as it cut through the magic and runes like they never existed, and with it a divinity fell severed, even if the body remained whole.
"It is finished, then."
"Yeah."
"..."
"Do you want to take him back home?'
"It would be for the best, I think. The Aesir will not immediately set upon me as they would you."
"And it puts distance between you and I."
"...Very astute. Yes, though he and I have quarreled in the past, as we have here, he is - was - still my half-brother. It is, it is difficult to be in your presence and do nothing to avenge him."
"I did what I had to. He died immediately, without pain. He faced it with honor befitting Asgard."
"I know."
"Go then. And if you don't come back, I understand. The door shall remain open to you all the same."
"And should I return for blood?"
"Then I will do what I must, and defend me and mine. As I have here."
"I expected as such."
"..."
"I suppose I shall be off."
"Yeah. Be well, Loki."
As the brunette watched the trickster god slip into the tent she just exited, someone else stepped back up. Clearly, he meant to try and get in her good graces.
She hoped what he had to say was worthwhile, particularly after she just told him to fuck off and get instruction from Kokabiel.
"You have something to say, Azazel?"
"Odin and I were drinking buddies."
"Ah." Luna glanced back at the tent. Teleportation and a trickster god- it'd take a lot more than the now-broken wards to stop Loki from leaving with Odin's body, even if she wanted to. "Did you want to pay your respects? You might be able to catch Loki-"
"Nah. Nothing I could say that'd matter, anyway. We knew where we stood, no need to muddy the waters. Still, I do wish you could have spared him. Odin was a decent guy, all things considered." He stared in that direction as well, a crestfallen expression visible on his face as Luna's gaze turned back to it.
"If I could have, I would have." Her tone came out clipped, causing Azazel to lift his hands in placation.
"I know. Given the circumstances, keeping him a prisoner of war would be a risky undertaking at best, releasing him would cause a mutiny, and Asgard has little tolerance for hostage negotiations." The Fallen Angel pinched his nose. "I'd have questioned your rationality had you not killed the old man, but still. Something's bothering me about all this."
Inhale. Exhale. "Go on then."
"The attack on your base. This was the Norse pantheon's best chance to take you down, and now Asgard is vulnerable to incursions by Muspelheim or Jotunheim. Now that Old One-eye's kicked the bucket, I expect the various factions within Yggdrasil to really start causing trouble. Even in the event of Ragnarok, Odin wouldn't blindly charge into a fight against Azrael herself - that's plain suicide. Even Dad needed to devise a plan and join forces with enemies to actually put a stop to you-" He pulled a face, running a hand roughly through his two-toned hair. "Er, the Demon that came before you. Sorry, it's still tough to reconcile your face and your power with the idea that you're a different person."
"It's fine." It wasn't, but there were so many bigger issues to deal with than a brief slip of the tongue. "You've got a point though, it doesn't add up. If Odin was serious about bringing us down, he could have gone about it a dozen better ways." Lunarunn's brow drew together. "I only noticed Valkyries and Einherjars among his forces, aside from a handful of Gods to keep the Enforcers busy. No elves, no dwarves, and certainly nobody from Vanaheim. Not even Baldr - weakness to mistletoe notwithstanding."
"Yes, I noticed that too."
"It was solely Asgardian forces, even then not all of them," Lunarunn continued. "and he sounded a retreat once the fight started to turn. He believes Ragnarok has begun; if that's the case, then wouldn't he be inclined to fight to the last since it's the end of days anyway? He wouldn't have agreed to be a distraction if Sirzechs's only goal was to recapture Serafall. He had an ulterior motive."
Was that why he seemed to accept his fate?
"The best we can do is speculate." The grim look on Azazel's face made it clear what he thought about that. "But something is very wrong if he challenged you with but a fraction of the men and women he could bring to bear."
Heimdall wasn't responding.
Some ways away, Rossweisse felt a chill creep down her back as the watchman of the Bifrost didn't respond to their request for evacuation to Asgard.
Thor, limping along from a particularly nasty wound scored along his leg by that axe-wielding human (a fine fight, had it not been for his half-uncle's meddling) spoke up, voice dark with a suppressed wrath that brooked no argument. "What is the holdup, secretary? We must return home as Father commanded!"
"He- Heimdall isn't answering." Swallowing, Rossweisse sent out another pulse into the Seidr. Once again, no response.
'Not even a denial of passage - nothing altogether.'
"Are you sure you're doing it right?" One of her compatriot Valkyries cut in, voice brusque. "Odin tasked you to get us out of here, and you can't even live up to his sacrifice?"
Rossweisse, in most circumstances, would have shied away and fled from the jeers, but there was little room to do so in such grim circumstances, and Odin's sacrifice to hold off the furious Dawn Legion during their retreat weighed especially heavily on her.
Everyone was stressed. Odin's former secretary was even moreso.
"Then why don't you try calling the Bifrost, Inga?" she quietly, coldly retorted, the sharpness of her turn to the other Valkyrie a cold indication of the limit she was quickly reaching. "Do you really think the Allfather would keep me at his side if I wasn't able to keep up with his demands? Heimdall is not answering. There is nothing you or I can do about that, so shut your mouth and let me think."
But yes, if Odin had tasked her to get them back, well, the Allfather was wise. What if he knew something they did not? He had bartered with Mimir for knowledge, after all.
Yes, he was the Allfather. He surely had a plan, even in sacrifice.
And what a sacrifice it was. Challenging the entirety of the Demon's forces on his own, expending his power in an endless cavalcade of runic spells, all for the sole purpose of letting those who swore fealty to him flee.
She turned away from the stunned Valkyries - weak, useless Rossweisse had finally barked back - as well as from the faintly smirking Thor - finally the little rose showed her thorns - and focused on her training.
"Grandmother, what would you do here?"
Gondul had stayed behind on another mission, tasked to her by Odin. But her grandmother would have known for sure. Then again, they were rather short on Norse deities with a specialty in Seidr. Most of them had stayed in Asgard for that mission, and Loki had joined the enemy, as was expected of him in Ragnarok.
Something still bothered her about going after the enemy - THE enemy - with such a limited force though. Especially given the call for a retreat.
'No, enough of that.' She shook her head. 'Focus on the now.'
She began to draw runes, falling into herself as she laid out the patterns in her mind. 'Ansuz. Eihwaz. Raidho. Mannaz? No, not when we're making a one-way portal back into Asgard. But since we're traveling across Yggdrasil, we may need to take its branches. Do we have what it takes to bypass Ratatoskr if we encounter him?'
No. They were tired, they were bringing back injured, and they were grieving the Allfather. If the guardian of the branches happened upon their return party, they were dead. So the slow way was out.
Mannaz could be used for a communal link. Gondul was her blood, and Rossweisse's main confidant. She fit both the familial and social connection that Mannaz represented. Could she use her grandmother to act as an anchor for the portal? Sympathetic links tended to remain strong even over vast distances. That could be useful, but she'd want protections in place to keep the anchor effect from harming Gondul or herself. Unless Gondul rejected the portal, but would she do so to her granddaughter?
'If Heimdall is unresponsive, then something is definitely wrong in Asgard,' A part of her whispered. And yet, that only served to harden her resolve - if something was wrong in Asgard, then it was their duty to return and aid in any way they could. Even if her plan failed, Vanaheim was also a potential location they could retreat to - the elves and their medicines would do their injured good.
Okay, so they had a fallback plan if this didn't work. She continued to plot out the runic circle in her mind. 'Place the portal on the outer circle. Center circle; Eihwaz, Mannaz, Algiz. Medium is family, initiated by family, protection from... what? Include Nauthiz reversed and Eihwaz. Protection from harm caused by travel. That should be sufficient for methodology. Inner circle; Nauthiz, Mannaz, Ansuz. Requires confirmation from the anchor to trigger the portal at all.'
A three-layered Futhark circle should be sufficient, but it still required a power source. Someone who could channel enough Seidr to facilitate a link across Yggdrasil, from Midgard to Asgard. They only needed to send out the link, then Gondul could facilitate the actual transportation process. Was that why Odin asked her to stay behind? No, she couldn't be sure of that, but she had to work with what knowledge was available.
Gondul was in Asgard, status unknown. Heimdall was unresponsive. Odin was dead. They needed to get to Asgard. They needed a link. Gondul could be that link, assuming her grandmother was capable of answering the Valkyrie's request.
They were on a clock, so that would have to suffice.
Rossweisse pulled out a knife and started to carve the sigils from her mind into the ground, working her way through the large runic circle. The circle had to be self-sustaining, at least long enough that their forces could pass through it. Add an additional, outer layer as the boundary.
'Isa, Eihwaz, Perthro, Raidho, Jera, Raidho. Jera, Nauthiz, Sowilo, Dagaz.' Preserve and recycle the Seidr used for travel for repeated travel. Repeat as needed, then the circle's function is completed.
She smoothly slid her blade across her palm to draw forth the medium they required - normally, creating a portal to make thousands with this method would take most of her vitae, but Rossweisse was no ordinary runesmith. Even the traditional offering she provided here would suffice.
And yet, as the runic circle flared in acceptance of the medium it would use to forge that sympathetic link, there was a gnawing wariness growing within the back of her mind. What, exactly, would draw Heimdall away from his post save for an assault on Asgard itself?
And what, exactly, would require all their practitioners of Seidr to remain behind, even as Odin led an assault on the personification of the apocalypse?
Her blood tingled, a sympathetic connection established, and yet it didn't tingle with the resonance she expected.
That same blood turned cold a moment later as clarity struck and the runic portal flared to life, the very runes that powered it shifting in place.
'It's inverting-!'
"EVERYONE, GET BA-GHK-!"
Rossweisse's voice cut off in a gurgle as a hand shot out of the portal to wrap around her neck, followed by a body and twelve wings as the Valkyrie was hoisted into the air. White hair swayed in the wind of the howling vortex of the portal, forcefully transmuted into a summoning circle - though the one who hijacked the Seidr remained frightfully intact despite the chaotic tempest that writhed behind him.
"So that's where the rest of you got off to," Rizevim Lucifer smiled prettily at the Norse soldiers that immediately surrounded him, weaponry brandished and ready. "I was wondering where exactly that wily old goat and his braggart son went. I do have to thank you for providing a beacon- Rossweisse, was that the name?"
"Correct, Goshujin-sama - her skill is as impeccable as ever, it seems," And behind him stepped a black-haired young woman, a wicked smile on her face as she observed their new surroundings, just as uncaring of the raised weapons as the Demon who appeared before her.
"Hello, Rossweisse-san. You probably don't know me - not yet at least - but I know you." Akeno Himejima beamed at the Valkyrie in question. "Milord has quite a few questions to ask. I do hope you behave." She shrugged, eyes opening a sliver as she gazed upon the silver-haired woman with a glint of something unreadable.
"Or don't. Ufufu~"
A/N:
Akeno working with Rizevim? Huh? The fuck?
There's a reason for it. More to come about that next chapter.
Hopefully much sooner than the timeframe between this one and that. Good lord, I fell off the writing bandwagon hard.
I blame work. Though finger-pointing can only go so far, I need to step up my game too.
Tempura Wizard out.